Board of Appeal in 2022: In Numbers

Each year, the Board of Appeal of the EPO publishes its Annual Report. Here are some key numbers from the 2022 Annual Report of the Boards of Appeal.

2660 - Number of technical Appeals Filed in 2022

2660 New Appeals before the Technical Board of Appeal (vs. 2245 cases in 2021).

3576 Appeals settled in 2022 (vs. 3395 cases settled in 2021)

6216 - Number of technical appeals pending before the Board of Appeals.

24 - Number of Appeals settled per Technical member

24 cases per technical member (19 in 2017)

56 - Number of months 90% of cases are settled

71 - Percentage of cases heard through VICO

71% of cases were heard through VICO in 2022.

Since May 2022, about 60% of the Oral Proceedings are through VICO.

1:3 - Ratio of ex parte to inter parte appeals

40 - Percent chance of success on appeal against Examination

4 - Percent chance as Patentee to maintain the patent as granted on Opposition Appeal

44 - Number of EQE Appeals in 2022

53 appeals were filed in 2021 (the year when many candidates wrote the exam due to the 2020 exam being canceled).

But the number of appeals has increased significantly since the pre-COVID (e.g., 15 EQE Appeals were filed in 2019; 16 EQE Appeals in 2018).

Source of information: EPO Board of Appeals

Images / Figures/Tables were taken from the EPO Board of Appeal Annual Report 2022.

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